The Singer, Not the Song
by Andry
Summary: Ted Tonks and Andromeda Black have a first meeting in 1970. Hearts break, sparks fly, the Beatles are played. PG13 for language.


The Singer, Not the Song  
  
The second Hogsmeade weekend of the year was a cold one, which couldn't have pleased Narcissa more. She had a lovely assortment of winter clothing that she was anxious to show off, something that the dress code at Hogwarts was not amenable to. She had put a great deal of thought into her outfit today, finally deciding on a striped velvet turtleneck and brown corduroy overalls, which seemed both cute and sensibly warm, though she had decided not to braid her hair, as Bellatrix had suggested. She was, after all, thirteen - she could pay homage to her childhood, but she could not actually *seem* childish. It was a delicate line.   
  
And after all this, Narcissa was justifiably annoyed to be ushered into the Three Broomsticks pub by her sisters directly after getting to Hogsmeade. Nobody would be able to see her and appreciate her cuteness in a pub, and all her careful preparation had been for naught.  
  
"What are we doing here?" she complained after they were seated and had gotten their drinks. "I thought we were going to meet up with the boys. This is boring." At her tender young age, most things were boring to her, especially when they were devoid of boys.  
  
"We are going to meet up with them," Bellatrix said, as patiently as possible. "They're going to meet us here in about a quarter of an hour." Being the oldest of her sisters at fifteen, she tried to have a measure of patience with them - no matter how stupid they were, she thought sourly.  
  
Narcissa blinked. "Oh. Okay." She paused. "Well, can't we go shopping, then?"  
  
Andromeda was scandalized. "For fifteen minutes? Are you crazy? What would we get, a scarf?"   
  
"But this is bo-ring," Narcissa whined.  
  
"There's supposed to be a band playing," Andromeda reminded her, tapping the flier against the table importantly. "From our school, even."  
  
Narcissa scowled and kicked a foot hard against the support on the table. "I bet they're awful."   
  
Bellatrix rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You are such a little brat."  
  
Narcissa took grave exception to this and drew herself up straight in her chair. "I am not a brat!" she said loudly. "And I am not little!"  
  
"Be quiet, they're setting up!" Andromeda snapped. Narcissa forgot her anger and leaned over to get a better view of the makeshift stage - really just an area where the tables had been moved aside to make room for the band.  
  
"Oo-ooh!" She whispered, delighted. "*Look* at the red head!"  
  
"I see him, I see him!"  
  
"Does he go to Hogwarts? What House is he in?" Bellatrix demanded, staring. Andromeda was staring as well, her jaw hanging open slightly, and Narcissa had fallen in love with him.  
  
The boy was tall, with a shoulder-length reddish brown shag cut and the mournful doe eyes common to his breed of musician. Even the fact that he was dressed in a wrinkled lime green shirt with a patchy plaid vest over it and a black jacket tied sloppily around his waist could not take away from his attractiveness. He had the sort of soulful magnetism that made girls flock to him.  
  
And flock they were, Narcissa noticed. Girls had started coming in to the little bar in droves, whispering, giggling, pointing. She heard cries of 'We love you, Ted!' and her heart turned to ice. How dare those harlots love him when she loved him?  
  
Andromeda, for her part, was not thinking of love but rather was wholly focused on the way his hair fell around his face, the shift of his black nylon pants when he knelt down to check some of the sound charms, the way his lips moved as he spoke to one of his bandmates. No, Andrmeda was not thinking about love.  
  
Even Bellatrix was slightly enthralled. Although not quite as brazen as her sisters, she shared the same wholehearted approval of handsome young men. A certain shyness and prudity, however, compelled her to sneak glances from behind her glass of butterbeer.  
  
The girls were so caught up in staring that they barely noticed when the Slytherin boys crowded around them, taking up every available space and draping themselves over the seats like long, skinny blankets.  
  
"Hi there!" said Lestrange cheerfully, resting his elbows on Andromeda's shoulders and his chin on the top of her head. Andromeda swatted at him, barely looking away from the stage.  
  
"Hullo, ladies," said Rosier, sliding into a chair and slipping an arm around Narcissa and Bellatrix. "Miss us?"  
  
Bellatrix slapped his wandering hand away and demanded, "Who is that?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The singer! The boy with the red hair!" Exasperated, she pointed.  
  
The boys followed her finger and uniformly glared at the stage. An undercurrent of disgruntled mutterings passed through them.  
  
"Tonks!" Lestrange said scornfully.  
  
"Ted Tonks," Malfoy spat.  
  
"That fucker," Rosier added.   
  
Bellatrix was annoyed. "But who *is* he? Does he go to Hogwarts? What house is he in?"  
  
Malfoy smiled nastily, staring at Tonks with a horrible expression on his face. "In order - he's a worthless mudblood, yes he goes to Hogwarts, and he's in Hufflepuff."  
  
"Goddamn mudblood," Macnair growled.  
  
"What?" Bellatrix demanded. Andromeda frowned at the boys. Narcissa was horrified.  
  
"No!" she cried out, stricken. "I won't believe it!"  
  
"You bunch of liars," Andromeda added, annoyed.  
  
The boys laughed nastily. "No lies," said Lestrange, looking pleased. "We couldn't make up something that good."  
  
"You're just jealous 'cause he's cuter than you!" Narcissa said huffily..  
  
"No he isn't!" Malfoy said instantly. The other boys nodded quickly. "No mudblood Hufflepuff who dresses like that is better looking than any of us!"   
  
"Yes he is!" Narcissa said insistently. "He's better looking than all of you put together!" The longer Narcissa could drag out the argument and not let it sink in that her One True Love was, in fact, a mudblood Hufflepuff, the better.  
  
"No, he isn't!"  
  
"I'm *much* better looking than he is," Rosier added, somewhat unconvincingly. Bellatrix gave him a pitying look.  
  
"You're all just jealous," Andromeda reiterated. "You're just making things up so we'll pay attention to you." It was worth noting that there was probably nothing short of a small earthquake that could draw Andromeda's attention away from Tonks at that point.  
  
"Believe what you like, then," said Malfoy, trying to seem cool and indifferent. He seethed with hatred on the inside. He was better than Tonks in every sense of the word, but these girls were sitting there, mooning over that worthless nobody.  
  
Bellatrix was deeply disappointed. "I can't believe this," she said, sighing. "I mean, why couldn't he just be queer or something?"  
  
The boys snorted and gave each other meaningful looks. The girls ignored them.   
  
Narcissa nodded sadly, accepting Ted's bloodline at last. "I know. I mean, you can still marry a queer. What can you do with a mudblood?"  
  
Narcissa was deeply saddened. She had loved Ted; she had given him her heart and this was how he treated her - he was in the stupid House with an unforgivably bad bloodline besides. She regarded this as a tragedy and an epic betrayal on the scale of Benedict Arnold, and would never quite forgive Ted.  
  
Andromeda was not particularly sad and was, in fact, mostly undismayed. Cute boys were cute boys, she reasoned, and ones as cute as Ted didn't come along too often. If her sisters wanted to drop out of the running just because they didn't like his pedigree, more power to them, and less competition for her.  
  
Not that that meant there was any shortage of competition. Andromeda surveyed the room speculatively, eyeing the sighing, giggling gaggle of girls with a measure of distaste. She was relieved to find that she was prettier, classier, better dressed, and had better tits than all but one or two. Mona Campbell, a fifth year Ravenclaw, and Jeannie Ross, a sixth year Gryffindor, could give her a run for her money, but she wasn't all that worried. She had shiny hair and the Black name on her side. Not to mention, she had worn her nicest, satiniest, cleavagiest top today - in the hopes of impressing Lucius, but no matter - and Campbell looked like a wet rag, and Ross looked worse. Andromeda smiled, confident now. Ted was practically hers already. She watched him trip over something onstage, dart a quick look up as a gasp of concern came from the crowd of girls, and offer them a tiny, sheepish smile as he righted himself. Andromeda's heart turned over.   
  
It was about this time that, nearly an hour after the band was supposed to have begun, Ted took the center stage. The gaggle of girls screamed ecstatically and Andromeda was a heartbeat away from joining them. Narcissa's face was the picture of disappointment, and Rosier and Lestrange had a quick, silent battle over which would get to comfort her. Rosier won, and slipped an arm around her. She slapped him.   
  
Andromeda was aware of none of this. She heard only Ted, as he spoke in a low, mumbling voice, "H'lo, we're the Paisley Band and we'll be playing f'r you today." Andromeda could not quite make out the name of the band, but she had a flier announcing the band on the table in front of her.  
  
"We love you, Ted!" shrieked the girls, swooning. Malfoy looked like he had just swallowed a lemon. The other boys were similarly disgruntled.   
  
"What a retard name," Lestrange snapped.  
  
"I like it," said Narcissa sulkily, pouting. She wondered what Ted would have thought of her outfit.  
  
"Only retards would have that name," Malfoy added.  
  
"Only jerks call people retards," Narcissa said succintly. No one seemed quite sure how to respond to that, except Rosier, who said:  
  
"What a fucking fag."  
  
They were saved from further argument by the band beginning to play. The gaggle of girls quieted instantly, though the odd squeal still issued from the group.  
  
When I get older, losing my hair  
  
Many years from now  
  
Will you still be sending me a valentine  
  
Birthday greeting, bottle of wine?  
  
Ted sang in the same low, mumbling voice that he spoke in, and the rest of the band seemed to play along the same lines. The song was little more than a confused, off-tempo, muddling cacophony of piano, drums, guitar, and a handful of other instrumental parts handled by magic, with the mumbling vocals thrown haphazardly over the top. Andromeda thought it was the most beautiful music she had ever heard.  
  
"This song is so sweet," cooed Narcissa, who despite renouncing her One True Love in her brain, had not yet been able to successfully transmit the message to her heart in the face of the beautiful, poignant melody.  
  
"It's *muggle music*!" Lucius said exasperatedly, goaded beyond all reason. "Lousy, awful muggle music! Not to mention that this is one of the worst bands I've ever heard! You can barely understand what they're singing!"  
  
Narcissa gave him a look to incinerate stone. "I think they're excellent," she said frigidly. "I can understand every word." This was not, in fact, all that true - Narcissa could make out about half the words - but she knew what they were singing about, anyway.  
  
Lucius looked at her and said in a slow, clear voice, "They're rubbish."  
  
"And Tonks is a fag," Roier added viciously, lighting up a cigarette. Lestrange followed suit, nearly lighting his hand on fire in his agitation.  
  
Send me a postcard, drop me a line  
  
Stating point of view  
  
Indicate precisely what you mean to say  
  
Yours sincerely, wasting away  
  
Give me your answer, fill in a form,  
  
Mine forevermore,  
  
Will you still need me, will you still feed me  
  
When I'm sixty-four  
  
The song ended and massive cheer went up from the mostly female audience. Andromeda couldn't hold herself back - she clapped until her hands hurt, and so did Narcissa. Bellatrix looked annoyed, though she had clapped too, if not as enthusiastically.  
  
"They weren't that good."  
  
"Yes they were," said Narcissa firmly, who was not old enough to differentiate musical preference from a preference for the lead singer.  
  
Andromeda, who was old enough, said simply, "Ted's hot."  
  
Belltrix was not dissuaded. "The band was awful."  
  
"Ted's awfully hot," Andromeda pointed out.  
  
Bellatrix rolled her eyes. Narcissa sighed, looking lovelorn as they started into their next song - a crowd favorite, judging by the girls' enthusiastic shrieks and squeals. Or maybe they just liked the way Ted stood slouching with his hands jammed in his pockets. Andromeda certainly did.  
  
Everywhere you want I always go  
  
I always give in because, babe, you know  
  
You just say so cause you give me that  
  
Feeling inside that I know must be right  
  
It's the singer not the song  
  
"This is crap. We should leave," said Lestrange, somewhat hopefully. Macnair grunted in agreement. Narcissa and Andromeda ignored them, but Bellatrix stood up.  
  
"What?" Narcissa cried, betrayed.  
  
"Oh, be quiet, I'm just going to get a drink," Bellatrix snapped.  
  
"I'll go with you!" Lestrange said eagerly.  
  
"No, me!" protested Rosier.  
  
"I'll go," Macnair offered.  
  
Malfoy just gave her a slinky smile. Bellatrix ignored them and walked off.  
  
The band played another three songs, two of which were originally done by wizard bands, to Narcissa and Bellatrix's approval (the boys agreed that it didn't matter if they played 'decent music', the lead singer was still a mudblood) and then began to pack up. The others wanted to leave and Andromeda waved them on, saying she would catch up with them later. Rosier tried to stay, but she shooed him off. She wanted to see the aftershow proceedings - namely, Ted's.  
  
Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance. When she turned back to the stage after the others were gone, Ted was nowhere in sight, and the gaggle of girls were swarming the other bandmembers, who had actually gotten the oppurtunity to *talk* to Ted and breathe the same *air* as Ted. Andromeda was not quite so desperate - the band seemed to be a grungy, bad-tempered lot, and when a group of her Ravenclaw friends came up to her she stayed and chatted with them, then other groups of friends or boyfriends who came and went. Andromeda had a wide circle of friends - her charming,vibrant personality lent itself to a sociable and friendly demeanor. She had an easy manner with people and with herself, the easy confidence of one who was comfortable in their own skin, and it was this, perhaps, that had made Ted Tonks notice her when he was performing at the pub.  
  
Ted ordinarily did not take a great deal of notice of the girls who came to see him perform. Although he was gratified by their interest, he found he was not too interested in them. This was one of the things Ted liked about the wizarding world - that he could afford to be disinterested. Among muggle girls, he was a sloppy, no-talent, directionless loser with bad taste in clothing, but the wizard girls found his eccentricities charming, and loved him. Although the muggle girls may have been a little more astute in their views of him, Ted felt more inclined toward his adoring fans in the wizarding world.  
  
He had noticed Andromeda around and knew her vaguely, though he knew that she did not know him. She was a fourth year Ravenclaw, two years below him, was the middle Black sister and was lusted after by nearly every warm-blooded male he knew. Several of his friends had dated her, which was not to say that they had overlapping social circles, but rather that Andromeda dated nearly every warm-blooded male. She had never taken much notice of him, and he not much of her.  
  
He had not, in fact, even noticed her in the crowd until Jenson, the drummer, pointed out her table. He had been pointing out Andromeda older sister, Bellatrix - 'there's that bitch who got her prefect friend to take twenty points off me the other day' - but he had seen Andromeda, with her auburn hair shining in the sunlight pouring in from a small window. She looked like a painting. He had thought about her through the rest of the performance, sneaking glances from behind his long hair, and was pleased when she stayed after her friends and sisters and left.   
  
After the set Ted left as quietly as possible, not wanting to be discovered either by the gaggle of girls or his bandmates, who would want him to help pack up. Ted had never yet stayed to pack up, and didn't intend to start now. He managed to avoid most of the girls, dissuading the odd one or two that found him with brief conversations and tentative kisses on the cheek, which invariably made them nearly hysterical with giggles. Ted did not understand their reaction but was amused and vaguely gratified by it. He tried to extricate himself as quickly as possible.  
  
He lounged around for about a half hour, wandering Hogsmeade, not really browsing. He knew he would run into Andromeda eventually, and he did, as she was coming out of Gladrags, chattering to her little sister Narcissa and a group of boys. Narcissa caught sight of him first.  
  
"Oh-h!" she said, a bit stunned. She looked down at her shoes quickly, flushing faintly.  
  
"Hi!" said Andromeda, more coherently. "I just - we - I loved the concert today. Really great," she said, smiling, looking a bit dazzled. He felt the other boys, who he vaguely recognized as Slytherins, some in his year, glaring at him and ignored them.  
  
"Thanks," Ted mumbled to Andromeda, then, indicating her bag: "C'n I help you with that?"  
  
"Oh! Oh, sure," she said, a little flustered, grinning shyly. She cast a pointed look at Narcissa, who was sulking next to a tall, skinny boy with brown hair.  
  
Narcissa rolled her eyes at Andromeda and gave a very put-upon sigh.   
  
"I feel so *sad*," she said pointedly, aimed in the general direction of the boys. "I don't think *anything* in the world could make me happy *again*."  
  
The boys took up the challenge with gusto. "Not even that purple dragonskin handbag in Gladrags?" Malfoy asked, smiling in a way that made Ted want to puke.  
  
Narcissa only sighed morosely.   
  
"What about if I do your homework for the next week?"   
  
"What about that new Hephaestus Rollers record?"   
  
"What if . . . what if . . . I got you something better?"  
  
"No, me!"  
  
"Me!"  
  
"Oh, boys, don't *fight*," Narcissa simpered, waving a hand at them. Andromeda tugged Ted away gently by his sleeve.  
  
"What about . . ."  
  
"What if I . . ."  
  
Andromeda smiled over at the rabble benignly. "They're so thoughtful."  
  
Ted had another word for it, but he didn't want to talk about the Black girls' admirers right now. "Yeah."  
  
Andromeda looked over at him apprasingly, almost coyly. He liked the way she looked up at him through her lashes. He noticed that he was quite a bit taller than her and was pleased.  
  
"So," he said, mumblingly. "I'm Ted."  
  
"I'm Andromeda."  
  
"Nice t'meet you."  
  
"You, too."  
  
He liked the way the wind was tossing her hair back from her shoulders, giving him a clear look at her pale, heart-shaped face and bright hazel eyes. She was smiling, a tiny, amused smile, gazing up at him with her head tilted to one side. He was mesmerized.  
  
"So," he said again, trying to collect his thoughts, feeling like he was in the eye of a storm. "Wanna getta drink?"  
  
She only nodded, still smiling. He extended his arm, and she took it, and together they walked back to The Three Broomsticks.  
  
Credits: The first two song excerpts are from 'When I'm Sixty-Four' by the Beatles; the third is from 'The Singer Not the Song' by the Rolling Stones, where the title obviously gets it's name also. They're even time appropriate. Because I'm anal-retentive enough that I actually went and verified this. Sigh. 


End file.
